


Red Noses and Warm Hearts

by idioticpaperclip



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Canon Gay Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Nico di Angelo and Will Solace are Cute, One Shot, POV Third Person, Post-Tartarus (Percy Jackson), Vomiting, Weird Plot Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-22
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:40:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23774713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idioticpaperclip/pseuds/idioticpaperclip
Summary: Nico gets sick, but in his usual fashion is stubborn about it, so Will only finds out when Nico collapses during Capture the Flag.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 8
Kudos: 139





	Red Noses and Warm Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Blues](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9727769) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 
  * Inspired by [A Moment To Breathe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11776617) by [winterwatercolour](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterwatercolour/pseuds/winterwatercolour). 



When Nico woke up, his first thought was _Fuck._ He knew that he was sick as soon as he pried his sticky eyes open. His hair was plastered to his face with sweat, his throat was raw, and every breath had a slight wheeze to it. 

_Why today, why me? Will was really looking forward to playing capture the flag with me today, I can't be sick!_

So what did Nico do? Well, he did what he always did, "pretend as though nothing is wrong until nothing is wrong", essentially his version of fake it 'till you make it.

Nico sighed, and stood up, pressing a finger to his itchy nose to suppress a sneeze. He lazily walked over to his closet to put on his usual clothes, until he shivered with cold and grabbed his thicker leather jacket instead of his regular one. He even put on a long-sleeved shirt under his t-shirt, figuring that if Will asked about it, he would claim that he was trying to be fashionable for once.

He hadn't realized just how bad it was until he went to brush his teeth, however. While Nico was wetting his toothbrush and getting ready to put his charcoal toothpaste on it, he suddenly doubled over in a coughing fit. His toothbrush clattered loudly against the smooth tile of the sink as he dropped it. Each cough violently ripped out of his throat, tearing at his vocal cords. He coughed so hard that it brought tears to his eyes, and he was left gasping for oxygen, his mouth gaping open like a fish. He stumbled to a seat at the toilet as dizziness from a lack of oxygen overcame him.

_Fuck, if Will sees me like this I'll never be able to leave the infirmary again._

Nico shuddered and stood up, and his knees buckled, weak from the lack of oxygen, and Nico barely caught himself on the sink. He took a deep breath, and just pushed through it, continuing to brush his teeth. If these 86 years of being alive had taught him anything, it was to keep going, no matter the cost.

Pulling himself together, Nico stepped outside of his cabin, and immediately recoiled at the harsh sunlight blinding him, making the now apparent pounding of his head that much worse.

He pulled himself together, however, as he heard a voice and saw a head of blazing golden hair jogging towards him.

"Neeks! Guess what day it is?" Will excitedly exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down as he approached Nico.

"Gosh Will, I don't know, what day is it?" Nico replied, hoping that the sarcasm dripping from his voice would hide the fact that his frame shivered slightly or the rasp in his voice.

It seemed to work, because soon Will was carrying on like he always did, rambling about one thing or another. Nico was too focused on squinting against the sun and trying not to trip over his lead-like legs that before he knew it, Will had taken his hand, led him to the Apollo breakfast table, and was calling his name.

"Nico!" Will's voice jostled him from his haze. 

'Um, yeah. Sorry, what?" Nico replied, hastily glancing up at Will.

"Dude, I just asked you if you wanted blueberry or chocolate chip waffles like 8 times, are you okay?" Will asked, worry deepening his brow. Will went to place the back of his hand against Nico's forehead and Nico swatted it away.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about later tonight," he gave a slight smirk, hoping to ease Will's worry, "gotta plan for-" He paused, caught off-guard by a sudden sneezing fit.

He sneezed once, twice, three times, four, five, finally ending on six. WIll, taken aback at first, eventually started to rub the small of Nico's back with one hand and run his fingers through Nico's hair with the other.

By now half of the table was looking at Nico, their medical spidey-senses tingling.

"Seriously, I'mb fine," Nico lied, sounding horribly congested. He sniffed to clear himself, then continued, "Gods, don't know where that came from. Probably just allergies or a head cold or some shit." He laughed, trying to sound calm, but instead it heightened the worry on Will's face.

"Nico, if you're sick or something, you can just tell me. It's okay, you don't have to play today."

"No, no, I'm fine. And besides, we're both looking forward to this too much for a little head cold to stop it," Nico said, standing up, almost gagging as the smell of food wafted towards him from the other end of the table, "Now I'm gonna go get those waffles."

Nico left, very aware of Will's gaze following him. He continued until he was out of view, and as soon as he was, he dashed to a bush and threw up. He heaved out his empty stomach until there were unshed tears in his eyes and his throat was rough from acid. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and stood up shakily, using one of the columns of the 'cafeteria' to steady himself, before grabbing three blueberry waffles for Will and one chocolate-chip waffle for himself. 

When he got back, he shrugged off Will's concern by inhaling his waffle, ignoring his stomach's unhappy gurgling. When he was done, he looked up at Will, as if to say, "see, could a sick person do that?" and WIll seemed pleased, as he went back to eating his waffles.

Nico stood up, planting a kiss on the top of Will's head, praying to the Gods that his mouth didn't smell of bile. 

"I'm gonna go get some training in before tonight, I'll see you later, okay Solace?" Nico asked, gesturing towards the training grounds.

"Soumds greath Meeks, ee you tonight," Will slurred with his mouth full, giving Nico that heart-melting smile. Nico blushed, hopefully because of his fever and not because Will was just so gods darn cute.

So, obviously, the next thing that Nico did was head straight to his cabin and collapse on his bed, where he would sleep for a total of 6 hours until it was time for Capture the Flag.

Nico woke up to the sound of a horn, feeling worse than ever. He opened his eyes slowly, cringing inwardly at the furious pounding of his head. His clothes were stuck to him with sweat, but he was freezing. As he stood up, the world spun in front of him and he collapsed onto his knees straight into a coughing fit. Each cough ripped from his throat, making the pounding of his head worsen tenfold with each heave. He cursed as he spat up some phlegm, slightly tinged with blood.

Nevertheless, he grabbed his sword and stumbled to the clearing to meet with Will.

"Gods Neeks, how much did you train?" Will teased, brushing a strand of sweaty hair that was still plastered to Nico's face to the side.

"Ah you know, the usual," Nico murmured, but his mind was too clouded by the pain to really understand what was going on.

Will was just about to comment on the fact that Nico's eyes were clouded and distant, or how _hot_ he was when Will had moved that hair, but he was cut off by Chiron.

"Alright, since we only have three new campers as of now, I'm not going to explain the rules. It;'s capture the flag, I'm sure you'll get the gist," he winked, "Now, let us begin!" He blew the horn, stamping his hooves, and everyone cheered.

Well, everyone except for Nico, who was just trying his best to ignore the pain fogging his vision. Will had to push his shoulder a little to get him to move.

"Neeks, seriously, if you don't feel well, I can-"

"I'm fine!" Nico snapped, but he hated how brittle his voice came out, so he changed his tone, "I'm fine- let's just go, babe." Nico hoped that slipping the nickname in there would soften Will, and it seemed to, as Will just shrugged, took his hand, and pulled him towards the armor station.

Nico struggled as he put on the armor, each piece seemingly weighing a literal ton. He sighed as they were put into teams, since Nico was assigned as one of the runners destined to grab the flag, and cringed at the _way_ too loud horn that sounded.

He ran, focusing on his breathing. He knew what he had to do; run left and cut through the woods, then bank for the flag, grab it, and shadow-travel it straight through the fighting, summoning skeletons to take out anyone following him. But his body was fighting him.

 _Slow down,_ it said, _Just sleep. You're going to throw up. Your head hurts too much. You can't do this!_

To Tartarus with that, Nico **could** do this, he had to, for Will. That's what he repeated in his head. You're doing this for Will. This is for Will. Push through for Will.

Then he ran into _him._ Percy Jackson.

Of course, he _had_ to run into one of the most powerful demigods at the camp. Of-fucking-course he had to.

Percy just grinned.

"Hey, death boy, ready for round two?" Percy bantered lightheartedly, referring to last week when he had beat Nico in capture the flag by simply running faster than him, but Nico was not in the mood. He summoned 5 skeletons but since he was so weak, they were as well, and Percy defeated them with ease.

"You good there, bud? You look a little pale...er than usual." Percy started, but Nico just swung his sword, which felt like a huge weight in his hands.

Percy easily blocked, sidestepping Nico and going in for a slash at the arm, that normally, Nico would be able to block with ease. But this was not normally.

Before Nico could even comprehend what was happening, he felt a searing pain in his left arm. Percy's sword immediately clattered to the ground, his face lit with shock that he had actually cut Nico.

"Wow, you actually got me..." Nico stammered before his whole world went black.

Nico woke up in the med bay. He was very confused at first until he saw Will rush into the room, and it all came flooding back to him. 

"Nico, what were you thinking? You went to battle with Gastroenteritis! Seriously!?" Will started and seeing Nico's puzzled look, he threw in a quick, "stomach flu" before continuing.

"And I'm so sorry that I didn't notice, I mean, I did notice, but I let you lie to me and I'm such a bad boyfriend, but seriously Nico what were you thinking?" Nico was so shocked by Will's sudden changes of mood that he stopped for a second, dumbfounded.

"Well, you were looking forward to it so much and I've pushed through stuff like this before so I figured I'd just..." He stopped, realizing how dumb it sounded.

"Nico," Will sighed, "Just don't do it again, okay?"

"Agreed," Nico smiled, right before placing a hand over his mouth that sent Will dashing for a trashcan.

 _Well, looks like I'm not leaving for a while,_ Nico smiled to himself, before promptly emptying his stomach into the trashcan that Will had brought him. _But that doesn't have to be a bad thing._


End file.
